Hands Of The Ripper (1971/Hammer/Synapse Blu-ray w/DVD)/Twixt (2011/Francis Coppola/Zoetrope/Fox Blu-ray)/Vanishing Waves (2012/aka Aurora/Artsploitation DVD)

 

Picture: B & C+/B-/C+     Sound: B- & C+/B/C+     Extras: B-/C/C     Films: B-/C+/C

 

 

Now for three very interesting genre films that are all intelligent and ambitious… for a change!

 

 

Peter Sasdy was a solid TV director before making his feature film debut with the somewhat underrated Hands Of The Ripper (1971) for the Hammer Studios in their later original years.  The film starts with a Ripper murder, than a very young girl witnesses her mother being murdered by the legendary killer who she had a connection with.  Years later, the child is a young lady (Angharad Rees) and she is trying to find her way in an ugly Victorian England world.  Suddenly, brutal murders are taking place all over and she may be the key, to has the Ripper returned?

 

This parable of the transfer of evil is one of Hammer’s most violent, interesting thrillers and on the more serious side of their output at this point coming from the Rank/Pinewood end of production (versus the equally fine Elstree/EMI productions) and holds up very well while still retaining its sense of dense Britishness, suspense and atmosphere throughout.  There is a howler of a moment I will not ruin, but we get a great cast that includes Eric Porter (Fall Of The Roman Empire, Kaleidoscope, Nicholas & Alexandra, Callan) is dead on as the doctor trying to solve the matter, plus we get fine turns from Jane Merrow, Keith Bell, Derek Godfrey, Marjorie Rhodes and Katya Wyeth that add up to a seriously good thriller everyone should visit or revisit.  Since this is the uncut version, odd are you likely have never seen it this way, so don’t miss it.

 

Synapse (who also issued the Hammer thriller Twins Of Evil, also reviewed on Blu-ray elsewhere on this site) is doing an ace job of issuing these Hammer classics and I hope they get to release them all.

 

Extras include a reversible cover if you want a more graphic image, the surviving audio of the original U.S. Network TV debut of the film with Severn Darden introducing and explaining the tale to make up for all the violence cut from its broadcast, Motion Still Gallery, Slaughter Of Innocence: The Evolution Of Hammer Motion Still Gallery, Original Theatrical Trailer & TV Spots, a Blu-ray only Isolated Music & Sound Effects track and The Devil’s Bloody Plaything: Possessed By The Hands Of The Ripper featurette.

 

 

Decades after Bram Stoker’s Dracula, Francis Coppola returns to the Horror genre with Twixt (2011) about a writer of witchcraft tales (Val Kilmer) visiting a small town to promote his novels when the town he arrives at turns out to be odd and unusual.  He meets a Sheriff (Bruce Dern) who likes his work and wants to write a book with him, finds a place where Edgar Allen Poe once stayed that intrigues him and a group of Goth types who might just be vampires.

 

In some ways, this moves more smoothly than Dracula, but I never felt Coppola totally cracked the Horror genre, despite his obvious literacy in it.  I was not fan of the Kenneth Branagh Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein either and this is different from those previous films (and not just because it is a digital shoot versus 35mm), but because it tries to be something different.  Elle Fanning shows up as a ghost child with a secret and fine turns by Joanna Whaley, David Paymer, Aiden Ehrenreich, Don Novello and Ben Chaplin also help, but I was not happy with the screenplay by Coppola based on his original story.

 

To much child-in-jeopardy issues and towards the end, the tale strains credibility despite his best expert efforts.  This film could not find a distributor and though I am not a big fan, it is far superior to most productions in the genre in recent years, so how garbage finds distribution and something ambitious, interesting and different like this does not is part of the sad tale of recent Hollywood that is clueless on what to make and release.  Fox picked this up for home video and should expect better returns than usual when people find out about it.

 

Extras Digital Copy for PC, PC portable and iTunes able devices, while the Blu-ray adds a Behind The Scenes featurette entitled Twixt – A Documentary By Gia Coppola.

 

 

Finally we have Kristina Buozyte’s Vanishing Waves (2012) about a researcher named Lukas (Marius Jampolskis) who volunteers to take part in a brain-mapping experiment where he is put into a water tank (eventually closed to put him in total darkness) with dozens of electrodes on his head that will also take him to other dimensions.  However, something else is going on and he seems to be making contact with someone unexpectedly that seems unrelated to his ideas or memories.  Something is going on and he intends to find out, which might come with a breakthrough and/or something devastating that could ruin the lives of him and even others around him.

 

If this sounds familiar, it is because the film is a little more than similar to Ken Russell’s Altered States and Tarsem’s The Cell, but not as clear or original as either despite a script and female discourse of sorts from Miss Buozyte.  The other issue is it is nowhere nearly as intriguing or as visually rich as those challenging, memorable films, so it settles for a generic visual reproduction of Spielberg’s already highly problematic Minority Report and the technology here is going to date quickly, especially since the story is ultimately too weak for its own good.  The erotic content is limited and never seems sexy or sexual, while the 120 minutes do not add up to what they could have.  Since she was being so derivative, maybe a reference to the classic a-ha Music Video for the international megahit Take On Me might have worked better than what she came up with, but ultimately we have seen all this before and better, save that this is a film from Lithuania that at least shows they have a promising new rising cinema if they keep at it.  The most curious should still see it for themselves.

Extras include a reversible cover if you want a more graphic image, a well-illustrated 12-page booklet on the film including a couple of interviews, Cineuropa interview with Bouzyte, a Making Of featurette, Trailers, Original Motion Picture Soundtrack on DVD 2 and Bouzyte’s first feature length motion picture, The Collectress.

 

 

The 1080p 1.66 X 1 digital High Definition image on Ripper is from the original camera materials and looks really fine of its age with decent color, impressive detail despite some soft shooting here & there and will surprise many that a film this age looks so good.  The anamorphically enhanced DVD version of the film is not bad for the format, but it is no match for the Blu-ray’s depth, warmth and consistent performance.  The film was issued in dye-transfer, three-strip Technicolor prints on both sides of the Atlantic and though it is not always demonstrating the range of that color format, it often does and Director of Photography Kenneth Talbot (Born Free, The Girl Hunters, Doublecross (1956), Battle Beneath The Earth, Countess Dracula) creates a rich, dense look that looks and feels like the time period and has visual impact throughout.

 

The 1080p 2.0 X 1 AVC @ 36 MBPS digital High Definition image transfer on Twixt can show some noise from the HD shoot, but there is also a good look here in line with Coppola’s Horror look in his Dracula.  Director of Photography Mihal Malaimare, Jr. (The Master, Tetro, Youth Without Youth) keeps the atmospheric look and feel Coppola intends long before any visual effects are added and save a few shots that I did not think worked, it is a better presentation than most Horror genre releases on Blu-ray we have seen in the last few years.

 

The anamorphically enhanced 2.35 X 1 image on Waves is also a digital shoot that also has its share of fine shots, but some shots look more digital than they should and color is limited somewhat if not monochromatic, though I wondered if a Blu-ray would bring out more.  Director of Photography Felixsas Abrukauskas, whose lensed Bouzyte’s previous features, also produces consistent images and there is no apparent noise.

 

 

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 2.0 Mono lossless mix on Ripper is really good for its age, professionally recorded and always sounding as clean and clear as a professional production of the time would be expected to, including Christopher Gunning’s music score.  The lossy Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono on the DVD version is not bad for the compressed format, but it lacks the warmth and fullness of the Blu-ray’s DTS track.

 

The DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix on Twixt would seem at first to be towards the front speakers and center channel, but Coppola’s films always have more complex sound designs and this one is not exception.  Note the articulation of sound effects across the soundfield, the way dialogue shifts, travels and changes character and how sound effects always have a narrative purpose.  The sonic champ on this list, it is also one of the most distinct sound mixes of the year on Blu-ray with plenty of demo quality moments, even if it also has more than a few quiet and standard ones.

 

The lossy Dolby Digital 5.1 mix on Waves also has interesting sound effects as a Science Fiction mix should and though it is not as complex as Twixt, it has its moments, but something is being lost in this lossy presentation, so I expect a lossless version on a Blu-ray would sound better.

 

 

-   Nicholas Sheffo